TOPIC: “Holy Morphing Media Batman!”: Comic Books and the
Question of Adaptation
INSTRUCTOR: Heather Love
3137 TR 5:45pm -7:00pm SY 006
3035 TR 7:15pm – 8:30pm SY 241
Over the past few years, Hollywood has released a flurry of movies
adapted from popular comic-book classics, from Spiderman and Batman
to Sin City and Watchmen. The entertainment industry’s practice of
borrowing from comics is nothing new; after all, Superman has
appeared in media forms as diverse as radio, animated cartoon,
television and film since his first appearance in 1938, and
Spiderman has appeared in some form of animated television series
every decade since 1967. In this course, we will investigate what is
at stake in the decision to translate a text from one medium to
another by exploring the ways that comics have been adapted across
various media: What happens when a comic moves from a book-form to
television or film? What is “lost in adaptation”? What is added?
Building from these questions, we will consider how comics and their
adaptations might illuminate contemporary cultural issues, and
provide insight into the entertainment industry and its marketing
techniques. Our texts will draw from comic books, television, and
film, as well as various critical writings, as we practice both
close reading and analytical writing. In the first part of the
course, Batman will be our primary focus; as the semester
progresses, we will explore a variety of comics and their
adaptations in our class discussions. Students will be encouraged to
draw from comics of their choosing when it comes to their own
assignments.